I have been thinking about dragons a lot lately. Although, probably not what your thinking. Perhaps I should say thinking about archetypal stories. I would attribute a great deal of this to a University of Toronto psychology professor, Jordan B. Peterson. I love his lectures, interviews, and video clips. And I feel like I have reached a greater understanding of myself thanks to this.

Dragon stories come from all over the world, and from all across time. Basically the archetypal dragon story is a story of a hero, who ventures out into the unknown, fights a dragon, and returns with some treasure. This is analogous to life in general. If one can face their dragons, their lives will be enriched in some form or another, you will get treasure.

Valerie helped me face one of my fiercest dragons today. Clutter, bad organization, and mess! I have so many electronic parts and pieces, and I need them all for my projects. But I also need to be able to find them. For a long time now they mostly have cluttered my desks and tables. Wires and circuits sticking out of drawers and shelves. This has been crippling to my electronics project efforts. And I have been avoiding organizing, I was avoiding my dragons.

Today she helped me clear off my table and sort my cubbies. Now my cubbies are happily mounted on the wall, and the top one, Alpha, is sorted and cataloged. Yes I have started cataloging my parts. I have a pretty good start on a JSON file, so I will start work on a database of items. I need to classify all my parts, and give them coordinates in this new system.

A sample: “JumperWires”:{ “MaleToMale”:{ “Small”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“A, 2”}, “Medium”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“B, 2”}, “Large”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“B, 4”} }, “MaleToFemale”::{ “Small”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“B,3”}, “Medium”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“A, 3”}, “Large”: }, “FemaleToFemale”:{ “Small”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“A, 1”}, “Medium”: , “Large”: {“ALPHA”, “Small”,“B, 1”} } },

Valerie’s valor has helped me deal a huge blow to my fiercest dragon. I made it back alive. I gained some treasure. Most importantly I have wounded the dragon. I have a lot more to do, but now I’m winning.

Thank you Valerie, I love you <3